I added a tilting cab to the Aliexpress Fire Truck MOC-156284

Hey brick fans!

I've got a handful of Lego compatible fire trucks in my collection from brands such as Kazi, Gudi and Wange.  While that's all and good, they are mostly European style fire trucks and what I really need is a North American style fire truck for my Not Lego city.  

Luckily there's quite a few fire truck MOCs on Aliexpress, and mostly 8 stud wide trucks, however I've decided I want all the vehicles in my city to be only 6 studs wide.  So that narrows the choices of fire trucks I can find on Aliexpress.  There was one model that caught my eye, it was listed as MOC-156284.

It just happened to be towards the end of the  Aliexpress 11.11 sale, and there were some special discount coupons being offered up, so I was able to buy it for just under $22 CDN.  When I last checked the item is now sold out by the vendor, although the fire truck is still being  sold by other Aliexpress vendors at differing price points.

It took about two weeks for the Fire Truck to arrive via Aliexpress, so not bad in terms of shipping.

The parts arrived in a blue zipper bag, which then yielded another ziplock bag.  That ziplock bag contained three more ziplock bags, none of which were numbered.

The instructions were printed on a sheet of paper, back and front and were ridiculously small.  I think one would need a magnifying glass to read each step.  Fortunately, the package included a QR code which when scanned provided instructions in PDF format which could be downloaded.

Alright, so I just opened all of the bags and sorted the parts by colour.  According to the listing, there are 422 pieces.  Ok, let's build!

And it's done!  It's a fairly decently designed model and looks very nice.  However, when I placed it next to my other fire trucks, it felt kind of small, even though all of them were 6 studs wide.  I think the length of the model is alright, but the truck doesn't feel tall enough.

I also didn't like the white wheels that came with the truck so I swapped in a set of gray spoke wheels instead.

There's still quite a nice bit of detail on this fire truck though.

Lots of emergency lights in the back.

Nice view of the front of the cab. The mirrors and door handles are a nice touch.

Firefighting equipment and tools can be found in the four opening storage units.

Up top, there is the directional nozzle for the simulated water hoses.

One thing I forgot to take pictures of while I was building, was the cab's interior. It consists of a steering wheel and 4 seats.  I tried to place a minifigure inside the cab, but there wasn't enough headroom for him to sit properly.  The model's design doesn't allow for the roof to come off.

So I added a row of flat bricks and voila, we now have a removable canopy.  At best, we can only fit two firefighters into the narrow cabin, one behind the other, and for them to be placed inside, you have to remove the minifigure's legs.

(image source: https://ebhfd.wordpress.com/about/)

In researching real fire engines on the internet, I came across some pics of fire trucks with their cabs tilted up for engine access. How cool is that?   And then I figured someone already did this to one of their Lego fire trucks, so I searched. and searched, and came up with nothing.  Zip, zero, nada.   If anyone reading this knows of  somebody that tilted their fire engine cabin, I'd love to see how they did theirs.

So here's mine!

The pole is just temporary to hold up the cab.

Obviously I couldn't fit a diesel engine in such a small space, so maybe the fire truck is electrified and underneath is the battery pack.

If you look closely, I had to redesign the entire front of the cab to allow for hinge placement.  There you have it,  hopefully anyone who is searching one day for a Lego fire truck with tilting cabin, will end up on this blog post!

Please let me know what you think of my fire truck mods!  Thanks for looking!   Bye

How to Make a MILS baseplate for my modular buildings (updated)

 

Hey brick fans,

Today's topic will be about MILS plates.  I've already discussed making MILS plates specifically for my Lumibricks sets, but this blog entry will be more generic and the you can you use it for any type of modular building.   

What Are MILS Plates?

MILS stands for Modular Integrated Landscaping System, a community-driven standard (originally from the HispaBrick Magazine folks) for creating huge, interconnected LEGO dioramas. At its core, a MILS plate is a 16x32 or 32x32 stud baseplate reinforced with bricks underneath for stability—think of it as a sturdy foundation module.  MILS plates add an extra layer to the base of your modular buildings to provide rigidity and stability.  It makes it easier to handle the modular buildings with the base flexing on you.

Advantages of Using MILS Plates

Enhanced Stability and Portability: The underlying brick support turns flimsy baseplates into rigid units that stack, transport easily, and hold heavy structures (like multi-story buildings) without sagging.

How My Version differs from others

The standard MILS system allows you to connect one baseplate to another so that the modular buildings are locked together using technic pins.  Since I'm always redoing my city layouts and moving buildings around I decided to forego that system.

My version of MILS plate uses the minimum amount of bricks while maximizing the structural integrity of the modular building.

We start with your standard 32x32 single sided baseplate.  This one might already come with your modular building set.  If not these plates can be found for under $2 CDN on Temu/Aliexpress or Dollar Tree.

Next grab a bunch of 2x4 bricks, 9 pieces to be exact.

Place the 9 pieces of 2x4 bricks spaced at the corners and center points along the baseplate.

Now I grab a bunch of 2x2 square or round (it doesn't matter).

These bricks provide intermediate support along the edges and center of the plates we will be using next.  We need 16 of them arranged specifically as above.

This step is optional, but it's what I use to attach the front facade on my MILS plates.  You need 3 of the bricks that are 2x2 with studs on the side. You'll also need 3 pieces of 1x2 plates and put them on top of the 2x2 bricks

Where I place these three bricks determine my front elevation. You can skip this step if you like and just place some extra bricks to line the front of the baseplate.

Now you will need 4 pieces of 16x16 plates. I typically cover up my plates with tiles so the colour doesn't matter to me. if you don't plan on making sidewalks in front of your modular building, just use the same coloured plates.

Press the 16x16 plates firmly down onto the bricks.  Note how the plates attach in relation to the bricks underneath.

Adding the two remaining 16x16 plates finishes off the raised baseplate.  

But we're going a step further by placing a front facade on the MILS plate.  To do this you will need two pieces of 2x16 plates.

Next grab 16 pieces of 2x2 tile and snap them onto the 2x16 plates.

Snap those onto the protruding studs on the MILS plate.  Now you have a finished facade.  So why is this facade necessary for my builds?  It's purpose to to hide the underlying colour of bricks and plates used to create the MILs.  Without the facade, I would be forced to use all the same colour for the bricks and plates, but with the front covered I can use whatever plates and bricks I have on hand even if they are different colours.

Here's one of my older pictures of my modular buildings.  You can see I used different coloured plates underneath the sidewalk tiles, which doesn't provide a cohesive look when you are placing different modular buildings together.

This MILs system will also work on a smaller modular building, say one that sits on a 16x32 baseplate.  Just adjust the amount of bricks and plates needed accordingly.

Hope that this little tutorial has helped you with your own modular building setups.   Thanks for looking!

Crafting a Mini Daiso Shop Inspired by Oxford Blocks Stickers

 

Hey brick fans,

I just spent 3 days making a little Daiso shop.  Daiso is a discount store chain in Asia that is similar to North American dollar stores. This 16x32 stud modular building was inspired by a sticker sheet from an Oxford Blocks building block set.

It's from a Daiso truck set that I bought while visiting South Korea.  Here's a review I made for that set: https://bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com/2025/09/oxford-blocks-daiso-truck-building.html.

Here's a few more pics of my custom Daiso shop.

I made it from spare bricks in my stash, a smorgasbord of white bricks, panels and some masonry bricks.  I used some red plates as accent pieces around the building's top perimeter. I used two of the three Daiso logo stickers on the exterior and one inside the shop.

The Daiso shop has two employees, the store manager and her assistant.  Also pictured is the delivery drive of the Oxford Blocks Daiso truck.

The Daiso shop conforms to my city building standards which is constructed on a raised baseplate and has the yellow tactile bricks known as tenji blocks on the sidewalk.

I used a simple light brick placed on the underside of the removable roof to illuminate the shop's interior.

Here's some interior shots.  I placed shelving with different types of product on the walls and center of the shop.

There's a self checkout by the entrance with the store logo visible on the wall.

Although it's currently set up as a single storey building, I have futureproofed it by adding an elevator shaft in case I decide to add more floor space later.

Here's the shop added to my city layout.   Let me know what you think of the shop.  Would you have done anything different?   Let me know in the comments, thanks for looking!

Bye for now!